The House settlement is in jeopardy

Hey there,

Could the House v. NCAA deal – the one we’ve been hearing about for half-a-year now – be on the verge of imploding? One little phrase could sink the deal completely, and potentially the NCAA with it. That’s our biggest story today – but it’s not our only one. We’ve got an NIL E-sports tournament, political groups paying college athletes to endorse their candidate, and more. It’s all coming up right now!

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The Big 3

🚨 House Settlement in Jeopardy 🚨 

Judge Claudia Wilken told the attorneys working on the House v. NCAA settlement to “go back to the drawing board” last week, suggesting she’s unimpressed by the deal. Many were expecting the deal to receive preliminary approval in court last week, but that’s now on hold.

Her main concern involved how money is collected and distributed to athletes – specifically involving the NCAA’s requirement that money is given to athletes for a “valid business purpose.” We talked about this issue in our NIL clearinghouse story a few weeks ago.

“Without [that language], I’m not sure there will be a settlement,” said NCAA lead attorney Rakesh Kilaru. Meanwhile, the other side is “perfectly fine with those changes,” according to co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs, Jeffrey Kessler, “If the deal falls apart, we go back to trial. If [the NCAA] want to face that, it's a decision they have to make.” (More)

Houston is Using Video Games to Score NIL Dollars

The University of Houston’s NIL collective, LinkingCougs, is getting creative with their fundraising. Last week they announced an NIL video game tournament, which will allow fans to play against the school’s football players in the new College Football 25 game. 

Admission to the tournament is $7, and all of the event’s proceeds will go directly to the school’s collective. Winners will receive prizes, including memorabilia signed by UH players and coaches. 

TheLinkU – an NIL management company that’s organizing the tournament – has made its intentions clear to expand the idea to other schools. Soon enough, collectives across the nation could be bringing in NIL money via video game tournaments. (More)

NIL for Political Endorsements?

A political group called “Montana Together” is using NIL to boost the electoral chances of their preferred senatorial candidate, Jon Tester. The incumbent Tester is currently trailing his challenger by 3.5%, causing the group to get creative in their campaigning strategies.   

Montana Together is paying student-athletes anywhere from $400 up to $2400 to produce positive videos about Tester. They’re using NIL service provider Opendorse to facilitate the dealmaking, but so far they haven’t been able to score athletes from either the University of Montana or Montana State. 

The strangest part? No one really knows anything about this political group. There’s no website, and the only vestige of a “real” organization is a Facebook page with three followers and five total likes. It’s an odd story, but this is NIL we’re talking about, so what’s new? (More)

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ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

Nico Iamaleava 

• School: University of Tennessee 

• Position: Quarterback 

• Sport: Football 

• Class: Redshirt Freshman 

• Accolades: 

• SEC Freshman of the Week (vs. Chattanooga, 9/2)

• 2024 Maxwell Award Watch List

• 2024 Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Watch List

• 2024 Polynesian College Football Player of the Year Award Watch List

• NIL: Nico has used his NIL rights to partner with First Factor (first national deal), Volunteer Club, and Beats by Dre. 

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NIL BLITZ

♦️ UCF’s collective is trolling Florida head coach Billy Napier with new NIL shirts

♦️ Audio brand JLab is launching a social media NIL series with some of college football’s premiere names

♦️ The Aflac Duck just got Deion Sanders and Nick Saban to partner up in its “Name, Injury, and Likeness” campaign

♦️ An anonymous Oklahoma donor just matched NIL contributions up to $2 million

♦️ The D’Amelio Huskies operation just scored $40K to give to non-football or basketball athletes at UConn

♦️ The NCPA announced their opposition to the House Settlement

♦️ Miami’s Cam Ward signs an NIL deal with C4 energy 

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BATTER UP

Today’s Poll Question:

Last Edition’s Poll Results:

Which conference will produce the CFB National Champion this year?

• SEC - 41%

• Big 10 - 18%

• Big 12 - 14%

• ACC - 13%

•  A non Power-4 Conference - 14%